Oh Tasmania. The final state in Australia for me to visit, and now I’ve done all 6 states, and one territory. Northern Territory is my final frontier, but I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon. I’ve always wanted to visit Tasmania, but never really bothered to go. All I wanted to do was explore the food festival that happens every new year, but I never wanted to put up with the crowds and the cost of travelling in the holiday season.

Well, finally I got my chance since I had a friend move there, so my accommodation was provided for. It was time to get to know Tasmania and see Salamanca Markets. All in less than two and a half days. First of all, here are some plane pictures!

Wow, what a tiny airport! That it’s it. It’s so small that all the gates are in the same place too, and there are no airbridges. Just wheely stairs everywhere!

My friends warned me that Hobart was really, really old. According to Google, it’s the second oldest city in Australia. There are buses but no train system, a lot of things are still cash based, and probably other oddities, but I didn’t notice too much….

The air smelled really nice though, very oceany.

I landed in Tas just after 10AM, and taxi’d it into the city. The taxi driver was telling me things such as needing to go to MONA and about the bridge that connected the east and west. She was super friendly! I was hungry so my first stop was Small Fry, which was at the top of my list. I didn’t realise it was a tiny hole in the wall with a communal table, it was absolutely adorable! They also had some specials up on the board which were really nice. There was a single chef, whose kitchen was partly the communal table too, and he talked as he worked – sometimes guiding the waitstaff (it was a busy day so it took up to 30mins for food, and I heard him instructing the waitstaff to apologise for the wait), or simply talking to himself or the customers. They also had a sign that said that photos were ok, but to ask for permission for videos. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a cafe put up that kind of sign before, so I wonder what prompted it. I’m not a fan of having people in my shots or taking videos, so it didn’t really affect me.

Because of how busy it was, there wasn’t room at the communal table, so I said I’d be happy to sit at the espresso bar. Turns out, it’s really awkward eating food on it because the chair height isn’t suited for sitting and eating, even though it was perfect for sitting and drinking. I started to panic while waiting for my food though – the bar was a poor choice because it was on the outside and the sun was shining down! No! Being out in the sun that long was bad (and bad for photography) and now I felt like I was getting sunburnt! Oh well, it’s not like it’s the first time I’ve made poor cafe seat choices. However, I didn’t realise until the next days when I checked my arms – no redness! Wow, the sun here musn’t be as strong as on the mainland. I can’t believe I survived that without a burn!

I agonised over two of the three specials, one was a tomato tartine with goat curd, basil and egg; and the other was a classic pavlova. I decided to be sensible and get the savoury dish, and it turned out to be great! Totally loved it, though I must have looked totally weird standing up and eating. I don’t mind though since I do that all the time though.

They also have really cute coffee cups, and only serve espresso. They used a local roaster, and from the flavour of the flat white, a short black would have been too dark for me, but as a milk coffee, it was quite enjoyable. Most of the time, it’s the experience that counts. It’s also one of my barista’s favourite places.

Next stop, Villino. I remember when a barista friend gave me a list of Tassie cafes ages ago, he mentioned that multiple cafes generally had the same owners. I can’t remember exactly which ones, but it became evident because usually there were two cafes next to each other or in very close proximity, and the connection became quite clear. How interesting! I’d actually tried Villino from Venery in Perth, and now I got to try it from the makers themselves! I had some Kenyan Githongo AB, which was quite passionfruity.

Since the transport system looked really limited here, I decided not to get a transport card and just walk up to North Hobart for this particular cafe, because it popped up on my feed and looked nice. It was quite a leisurely stroll, and I could afford to take the time since I’d already managed to explore half of Hobart in less than half a day. Yep, it’s a really tiny city. This is Born in Brunswick, a massive cafe with a lot of plants and natural lighting. My filter was the Kenya Windrush Estate by Rumble Coffee Roasters. I’d actually had the same coffee from Verve in Japan earlier this year, so it was nice to compare. It actually tasted very similar! And then because I didn’t get any avocado toast while I was in Melbourne, I made up for it here.

Taking touristy photos. What’s really cool is that Hobart is actually rather hilly, and a lot of the houses are built in the hills so there’s still a lot of greenery about!

Jingle horses! I would have loved to ride on this, but I think it’s a full tour that takes about an hour or so to complete.

This picture looks fuzzy because it was taken from inside a car. That’s the Tasman bridge, and apparently you can walk on it since there’s a pedestrian footpath. I would have loved to walk across it; it’s only about 1.5km, give or take, so it doesn’t take very long to do. However, I didn’t have that kind of time, plus, getting to the bridge is a pain, and then you’d need to go all the way back or proceed into the suburbs, so it simply wasn’t worth it.

Crossing the bridge in a car :)

That night was dinner at Dier Makr, which has its own post.

Because I was worried I would be hungry afterwards, I made my friend take me into Woolworths while I looked around and didn’t buy anything.

The clouds here are crazy looking!

This was taken from a rooftop carpark since my friend was working that day. Pretty cool view!

Pigeon Whole Bakers was a late find for me, but it looked so good that it went towards the top of my list very quickly. I’m really impressed with this place! It’s right next to Franklin, and the pastries are delicious! I really enjoyed both my croissant and my super mini super juicy fruit mince pie. They did a whole bunch of other pastries that I would have loved to try, and their cookies and their jams too!

What’s also nice and unique about this place is that they only serve batch brew coffee. There’s no espresso machine or anything, and they use Melbournian roasters such as Market Lane and Seven Seeds, so I was very eager to try the Market Lane Dukunde Kawa, which was absolutely delicious. Would definitely come back here again for treats.

The final cafe that I really wanted to visit was Vilicia Coffee, because they were serving up ONA coffee, and ONA is a rare find for me. It’s the first time I’ve had something other than raspberry candy as espresso, these guys had the founder blend so I took it for milk, had the Colombia La vega as a really tasty espresso and then struggled by the time I got to the Ethiopia Wush Wush as a filter. I knew the Wush Wush would be tasty, but I also remember it not ranking that high when I tried the varietal in my Cultivars of Colombia set (my favourite were pink bourbon and I think maracaturra). However, my one tasted a bit odd – my first thought was that maybe I had a quaker in my coffee! Just like that time I said my coffee tasted a bit weird at Steamtank, so they tried it, and then explained what I was tasting. This felt very similar, but I didn’t verify since I was on my fifth coffee (the espresso was a double shot) in an hour and my heart was giving me warning shots, so I had to stop and hydrate up and eat the haloumi burger.

I would have loved to chat with the baristas here if I wans’t dying though.

I deliberately gave Yellow Bernard, Bright Eyes and Ecru a pass. I think there is another V cafe that I decided not to go to?

Luckily, I’d recovered enough that I could continue exploring instead of being incapacitated like that one time back in Sydney. So I found this little donut shop tucked away in a really dark downstairs thing. That’s the most hipster thing I’ve seen yet!

After having lunch at Franklin and being absolutely full, I stopped by Salamanca Markets to see what it was normally like (I had 45 mins to kill before the next boat to MONA). I picked up some edible souvenirs of pepperberry salt and wakame salt from the seafood shop, and I also found bugs in candy! Though hideously overpriced, I still decided to buy one. I would have loved to gotten an edible tarantula too, but those were $20 and you couldn’t see inside the packet to assess their “intactness,” so I didn’t buy one.

I’d also managed to find a little Japanese shop that sold Tasmanian kombu, so I picked up a couple of packets of that so I could make dashi again, since WA isn’t allowed to import Japanese kombu due to the iodine levels found within them or something?

Anyway, then it was time to go to MONA, where I spent the entire afternoon there, and then went straight to Aloft aftwards for dinner. It was a totally hectic day!

The next morning, off to Salamanca Markets for real! 

Oh yeah. This is what I like to see. It’s no longer about the touristy stuff for me, I was here to eat raw vegetables and other goodies for breakfast.

Look! Bruny Island oysters!!! At first I wasn’t sure about getting these, but then I really thought about it, and since Tasmania is the place for food, I decided, why not. I’ll definitely do oysters for breakfast. This place sold them according to their size, so the small ones were $15 per half dozen, and went up from there. They even had super jumbo giant oysters for $6 each, but that day they weren’t that big (I had one maybe the same size or a tad bigger in Adelaide where I got it all dressed up), so I didn’t get one just for the fun of it. I decided to stick with the small ones since small ones usually taste the best.

The ended up being huge! Bigger than any I’ve had at a restaurant! But they were also very delicious. Really good, fresh stuff. Nothing beats fresh Tassie oysters. A lot of Asian tourists wanted the large ones. Nah, I don’t think large ones taste better. You need tiny flavour packed morsels for maximum enjoyment. But anyway, I finally decided I’d ask this shucker where Flirty Bay was. And I got my answer! It is definitely Flirty Bay, not Floaty Bay, and it’s sometimes known as Fancy Bay! So now I know :) Asking questions pays off!

This was the stall I was looking for – Provenance Growers, who supply high end restaurants with amazing produce. I’m so glad  I found this stall! While there wasn’t any fresh stuff that I could really enjoy raw, I bought some of their pepperberry salt, saltbush wakame salt, green tomato sauce, raspberry jam, and some rose/rhubarb/geranium shrub drinking vinegar concentrate (which I would later dilute with tonic water and maybe some gin). So far, I loved what I’ve tasted!

Fat Pig Farm also had a stall here, which was a place my friend in Adelaide really wanted to go. They’re also high end and farm to table, having a farm and restaurant. But since I’d already bought so much from the stall before, I settled for just some ham from this place. And it was really, really nice ham!!!

I found some organic Tassie baby carrots, so I bought a bunch and nibbled away at them while I browsed the markets.

I saw these the day before, apparently the scallop pie is a Tassie thing, so I tried one of these too. They’re okay. Had to have one just to say I did. Probably wouldn’t get another one since I could totally eat more oysters instead.

Or more berries. Look at this wonderful little berry punnet! Red currants! Red currants that tasted inifinitely sweeter than what I had at Orana all those years ago! And those strawberries were so sweet, like the ones I had in Japan. Absolutely wonderful! I loved muching on all the berries here. I’d actually taken this to the nearby park and sat in the grass eating away, while watching a bagpipe group in action. Again, I’d spent hours in the sun, and no burn. Magical!

Since I had a tiny bit of spare time, I could visit one last cafe, so I chose Pilgrim. They use Sensory Lab, but I haven’t liked Sensory Lab beans much. Good thing I got the flat white and not a black coffee!

And a gruyere omelette with bacon. Nice and filling, but nothing as spectacular as the brekky I got from Small Fry. That place was still the best for food.

And that’s Tasmania done. Two and a half days, covering several cafes, three restaurants, Salamanca Markets, and MONA. That was epic. At the airport, I also got a little survey thing to fill in, I’m guessing to help the government find out why people visit. Of course, my reason was food!

To be honest, I think I didn’t do my Tasmania trip correctly. I thought that there’d be enough “Hobart” for me to want to come back, but no, it was too small. I have zero interest in Hobart city except for the restuarants, Small Fry and Pigeon Whole Bakers. Maybe Vilicia. Oh, I’d redo MONA and spend a day there, definitely.

Instead, what I would like to do, is instead of visiting Hobart, I’d visit Tasmania as a whole. I would love to spend a couple of days in the Huon Valley (apparently it snows here!!!!), then a couple on Bruny Island. Definitely a day for MONA, and whatever else there is. Tassie is so small that you really do need to go out of the city to take everything in. But that’s a next time thing. If there’s a next time. The food here is absolutely gorgeous.

But for now, it’s back to Perth.